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ALBANY — A grassroots movement is setting its sights on the nation’s largest voting faction — the 50 million citizens between the ages of 18 and 29.

“This is the single most important project that we have ever introduced,” said Concept Farm and Creative Director Ray Mendez. “My personal mission is to give a voice to those who will be responsible for this planet in the coming years.”

The Stop and Vote initiative was formed by 10 college-aged interns of The Concept Farm, a New York-based advertising agency, as a project to be used for the focus of their summer work. The concept was designed to overcome their peers’ biggest excuses for not voting, a news release from the agency said.

“After the idea was developed, the Farm employees reacted so strongly that we knew that we must do whatever it took to push this effort not only for this election, but as an ongoing project of the agency for many years to come,” said Mendez. “Countless hours of time, thousands of development dollars and immeasurable amounts of passion were sanctioned to create Stop and Vote, and we are very proud of the result.”

The project was launched Sept. 11 with a viral element where users are encouraged to “represent” by creating a customized voting message, regardless of how controversial, and sending it to peers. Participants can upload any images that strike a chord, add their own political message or the Stop and Vote graphic before sending it out.

Based on the press release issued by The Concept Farm, the Web site has had more than 1,500 visitors and 230 created viral messages so far.

The Web site also contains an information page that walks through the voter registration process and shows polling booth locations. It also contains a survey link to match potential voters with a specific candidate while exposing them to the candidates’ positions and policies, issue by issue. The voter registration page alone has had 380 hits.

“This project has not only helped register thousands of people to vote, but it’s created a voice where a large void has existed for far too long,” said Concept Farm intern and Stop and Vote co-creator Yasin Abbak. “We hoped that the provocative nature of this idea would catch fire and allow the ‘youth vote’ to express that which is REALLY on our minds, but the result has exceeded all expectations.”

The Web site also contains links to Facebook and YouTube. The Facebook group associated with the project, which Abbak administers, has more than 650 members as of Tuesday.

The 10 interns behind the Stop and Vote project attend schools such as Syracuse University, Binghamton University, The School of Visual Arts, Drew University, Hamilton University, Miami University in Ohio and the University of Tampa.

Abbak, who has been instrumental in the entire project, is a political science major at Drew. Mendez assigned the project to the interns and has worked closely with them throughout it’s production.

For more information, visit the site at www.stopandvote.org.

Posted by The Rooster

Will you be voting in the upcoming presidential election?

If you haven’t made plans yet, you’ve probably been contacted by groups such as Stop and Vote, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to trying to get people to vote by any means possible.

Stop and Vote focuses on young adults and their voice in politics today. According to their Web site, “We are a voice of a demographic that needs to speak up.”

“We are real people with different backgrounds and experiences …Our generation is facing real situations, and politicians don’t see the world from our perspective. We want stopandvote.org to be used as a tool to make each other aware of our collective potential. We want to be counted.”

In addition to supplying links to appropriate voter registration forms and information on voter’s rights for each state on the Web site, Stop and Vote provides e-cards that can be sent out to encourage voting, and a “tag your neighborhood” link where stickers and logos can be ordered.

A customized clock is presented based on the viewer’s state of registration in and time zone to count down the minutes the user has left to register to vote.
Stop and Vote began with a group of college interns dedicated to giving our generation a more powerful political voice by encouraging voter registration. The interns came from various campuses and worked together on a project at the Concept Farm, a New York Communications firm.

Ray Mendez, a partner at the agency, describes himself as dedicated to creating an assignment that would make a difference.

Mendez challenged the company’s summer interns to create a campaign to drive people to action. “Eighteen- to 29-year-olds have so much at stake. But they don’t realize that they have the power to shape this country’s future with their votes. So that became their [the interns’]assignment: create a campaign to drive their generation to the polls,” he said.

The interns designed Stop and Vote and focused their group on the idea of “overcoming their peers’ biggest excuse for not voting, “one person’s vote won’t make a difference.”

The campaign is successfully gaining momentum, and is well known for its customizable and sometimes controversial messages encouraging voter registration.

Stop and Vote’s Web site launched on Sept. 11, allowing visitors to create their own messages (no matter how controversial) and send them to friends by uploading images and adding their own political thoughts.

The idea behind these personalized messages is that they can highlight any issue important to the creator.

“If religion is important to you in this campaign, vote; If women’s rights are important to you, vote; if you’re for or against McCain, vote; if you’re for or against Obama, vote … The permeations are endless,” the Stop and Vote team said.

“I’m registered to vote and I think Stop and Vote carries a worthwhile message … Our generation is too apathetic!” junior Ashley Marciniak said.

So far, the Stop and Vote Web site has had over 1,300 visitors and over 200 voting messages have been created.

The Stop and Vote Facebook group has doubled in size to over 600 members in recent days.

Over 300 people have accessed the voter registration page from the link, successfully moving the organization closer to their goal of motivating young Americans to action.

Posted by The Rooster